Nothing to see here, move along.
Hmmm... It's Saturday night, everyone I know is presumably somewhere more interesting, so I have the house to myself I think (I hope Chris is in and being unresponsive, otherwise we have creatures living in the kitchen ceiling) and I am infinitely bored.
Had a moderately interesting day at Tondu doing the ironworks open day thing with Laura, even though I overslept and was woken by a phone call from Laura. I need an alarm clock that I don't know how to disarm in my sleep.
Well, temps pour un autre piece de memage that isn't utterly pointless, as so many are. Stolen from, well, everyone... or it wouldn't be a very good meme.
5. apocalypse films - I have an odd need to test my ability to survive when faced with such things as huge asteroids, or zombies. Perhaps I just loathe modern civilisation and crave it's destruction from space.
10. atmospheric lighting - is better than non-atmospheric lighting. Unfortunately, artistic lighting is often impractically dim, or impractically expensive. For some reason the Dutch are absolute masters of interesting lighting.
15. bongoes - saw Moby playing bongoes on Jools Holland late one night, and he played them ridiculously well. Ever since then, I crave bongoes.
20. cats - cats are an endless source of fascination, if you have a cat you will never be bored, as I am now.
25. cognitive science - I spend hours pondering about the way my mind works, and on days when I'm sick of physics but still am not scientifically sated I've a tendency to read about brains, or to sit and do zenny "blank mind stuff" and see what lurks beneath the surface. Generally, I love to sit around and wonder about why I wonder about things, and what exactly is the nature of consciousness. My one stumbling block is that I haven't got the memory for the anatomy side of things, so end up having to reteach myself neuroanatomy every single time I read something....
30. digital signal processing - just a random geeky obsession, I'd like to be good at DSP but it's really hard as it can get kind of abstract, so I tend towards image processing which being a little more visual and suited to my brain.
35. electronica - by electronica I probably meant electronic music in general. Why restrict ourselves to the sounds of physical instruments, when synthetic ones allow us to create entirely new palettes of sound. I like to listen to people pushing the envelope, sonically. Talking of envelopes, here's a tip - next time you get one of those self seal envelopes in the post, don't open it! Go into a cupboard or a dark, dark room, and then open it, looking carefully at the gummy bit. Very cool.
40. fight club - style and substance in one film, impressive.
45. fugues - big pipe organs are awesome, particularly if you're actually in the same room as they are (fugues on CD are totally weak by comparison).
50. highland cattle - highland cows have crazy fringes, and they remind of Highland Toffee. A herd of them roam the hills near me in Yorkshire in a somewhat atypical fashion, and I always thought they rocked.
55. kurosawa - he makes long films about samurai, and very good films they are too.
60. long hair - I have it, therefore I have some interest in it, but mostly this is because I really go for long haired women, and not at all for short haired ones (the only exception I can think of is fictional, Carter in Stargate SG1 - although I guess the fact that she's super smart and fights aliens might be a factor too).
65. mazzy star - psychedelic laid back melancholy lushness. Listening to Mazzy Star on a dark wintry night with candles going just puts me in a nice mood.
70. mushrooms - all mushrooms are a marvel, not just the magic ones.
75. ninjas - ninjas are just pretty impressive all around, expect for the film American Ninja, which was rubbish.
80. photography - I've always played with cameras and been fascinated by light ever since I can remember.... The decontextualisation that photographs provide is sometimes a hindrance but sometimes can make a photo, or a colection of them an intriguing window into someone else's sense of high aesthetics. And it helps me remember the transient pretty things.
85. psychology - brains and how people think intrigue me, again it's mostly the consciousness stuff that I'm interested in, although there are an array of fascinating little tests (such as anaesthetising one hemisphere of the brain, and talking to each hemisphere individually) that just make me marvel at what goes on inside the skull. The only downside is that every so often you remember that the pretty face is only the interface, the brain is the thing.
90. rain - I like the sound of rain, the smell of it, the way the light changes during a rainstorm, and the way it sends the plebs scurryinge and can give me entire mountains to myself.
95. samurai - I find the idea of trained killers who also write poetry and ceremonially drink tea, interesting.
100. squirrels - How could anyone not actually like squirrels, with their bushy tails and twitchy noses. Anyone who doesn't farm nuts that is.
105. surrealism - the surrealists just enjoyed playing with language and imagery, mixing things up in order to find the beauty within unexpected juxtapositions. I like their style.
110. trance - as a variant on electronica, much trance is awful, yet some is awesome. Decent trance with the right combination of rhythms can almost make you high without drugs.
115. welsh - since I was born in North Wales, I feel it only proper that I should know a little of the language, and due to many years of reading Celtic mythology books and such I always found it quite a beautiful language. So when the SU offered free Welsh lessons when I first arrived in Cardiff, I learnt enough to chat to people a bit, but then the guy who taught it left and all I had to go on with was an ancient Teach Yourself book, and oddly, for the capital city of Wales, nobody to talk to.
120. woods - trees rock. Gatherings of trees rock more. I really, really, want a forest and for a few years entertained the idea of doing a forestry degree (or geology), but in both cases realised I'd probably end up destroying the very things I loved more often than nurturing them (most foresters I spoke to had no qualms about killing squirrels). I am indeed a quaint and antiquated rustic, but I've never been into the whole killing things malarkey.
Had a moderately interesting day at Tondu doing the ironworks open day thing with Laura, even though I overslept and was woken by a phone call from Laura. I need an alarm clock that I don't know how to disarm in my sleep.
Well, temps pour un autre piece de memage that isn't utterly pointless, as so many are. Stolen from, well, everyone... or it wouldn't be a very good meme.
5. apocalypse films - I have an odd need to test my ability to survive when faced with such things as huge asteroids, or zombies. Perhaps I just loathe modern civilisation and crave it's destruction from space.
10. atmospheric lighting - is better than non-atmospheric lighting. Unfortunately, artistic lighting is often impractically dim, or impractically expensive. For some reason the Dutch are absolute masters of interesting lighting.
15. bongoes - saw Moby playing bongoes on Jools Holland late one night, and he played them ridiculously well. Ever since then, I crave bongoes.
20. cats - cats are an endless source of fascination, if you have a cat you will never be bored, as I am now.
25. cognitive science - I spend hours pondering about the way my mind works, and on days when I'm sick of physics but still am not scientifically sated I've a tendency to read about brains, or to sit and do zenny "blank mind stuff" and see what lurks beneath the surface. Generally, I love to sit around and wonder about why I wonder about things, and what exactly is the nature of consciousness. My one stumbling block is that I haven't got the memory for the anatomy side of things, so end up having to reteach myself neuroanatomy every single time I read something....
30. digital signal processing - just a random geeky obsession, I'd like to be good at DSP but it's really hard as it can get kind of abstract, so I tend towards image processing which being a little more visual and suited to my brain.
35. electronica - by electronica I probably meant electronic music in general. Why restrict ourselves to the sounds of physical instruments, when synthetic ones allow us to create entirely new palettes of sound. I like to listen to people pushing the envelope, sonically. Talking of envelopes, here's a tip - next time you get one of those self seal envelopes in the post, don't open it! Go into a cupboard or a dark, dark room, and then open it, looking carefully at the gummy bit. Very cool.
40. fight club - style and substance in one film, impressive.
45. fugues - big pipe organs are awesome, particularly if you're actually in the same room as they are (fugues on CD are totally weak by comparison).
50. highland cattle - highland cows have crazy fringes, and they remind of Highland Toffee. A herd of them roam the hills near me in Yorkshire in a somewhat atypical fashion, and I always thought they rocked.
55. kurosawa - he makes long films about samurai, and very good films they are too.
60. long hair - I have it, therefore I have some interest in it, but mostly this is because I really go for long haired women, and not at all for short haired ones (the only exception I can think of is fictional, Carter in Stargate SG1 - although I guess the fact that she's super smart and fights aliens might be a factor too).
65. mazzy star - psychedelic laid back melancholy lushness. Listening to Mazzy Star on a dark wintry night with candles going just puts me in a nice mood.
70. mushrooms - all mushrooms are a marvel, not just the magic ones.
75. ninjas - ninjas are just pretty impressive all around, expect for the film American Ninja, which was rubbish.
80. photography - I've always played with cameras and been fascinated by light ever since I can remember.... The decontextualisation that photographs provide is sometimes a hindrance but sometimes can make a photo, or a colection of them an intriguing window into someone else's sense of high aesthetics. And it helps me remember the transient pretty things.
85. psychology - brains and how people think intrigue me, again it's mostly the consciousness stuff that I'm interested in, although there are an array of fascinating little tests (such as anaesthetising one hemisphere of the brain, and talking to each hemisphere individually) that just make me marvel at what goes on inside the skull. The only downside is that every so often you remember that the pretty face is only the interface, the brain is the thing.
90. rain - I like the sound of rain, the smell of it, the way the light changes during a rainstorm, and the way it sends the plebs scurryinge and can give me entire mountains to myself.
95. samurai - I find the idea of trained killers who also write poetry and ceremonially drink tea, interesting.
100. squirrels - How could anyone not actually like squirrels, with their bushy tails and twitchy noses. Anyone who doesn't farm nuts that is.
105. surrealism - the surrealists just enjoyed playing with language and imagery, mixing things up in order to find the beauty within unexpected juxtapositions. I like their style.
110. trance - as a variant on electronica, much trance is awful, yet some is awesome. Decent trance with the right combination of rhythms can almost make you high without drugs.
115. welsh - since I was born in North Wales, I feel it only proper that I should know a little of the language, and due to many years of reading Celtic mythology books and such I always found it quite a beautiful language. So when the SU offered free Welsh lessons when I first arrived in Cardiff, I learnt enough to chat to people a bit, but then the guy who taught it left and all I had to go on with was an ancient Teach Yourself book, and oddly, for the capital city of Wales, nobody to talk to.
120. woods - trees rock. Gatherings of trees rock more. I really, really, want a forest and for a few years entertained the idea of doing a forestry degree (or geology), but in both cases realised I'd probably end up destroying the very things I loved more often than nurturing them (most foresters I spoke to had no qualms about killing squirrels). I am indeed a quaint and antiquated rustic, but I've never been into the whole killing things malarkey.